Diet taboos for liver disease

Absolutely abstain from alcohol and moldy food. At the same time, adjust your diet according to your liver disease stage and avoid foods that exceed the liver's metabolic capacity. Most of the other so-called "taboos" are individualized and situation-specific, and there is no unified standard answer.

The last time I met a 30-year-old man with hepatitis B in the outpatient clinic, he couldn't resist the persuasion of his colleagues during the company team building. He drank two cans of cold beer and became jaundiced when he returned home. The whites of his skin and eyes turned yellow and turned orange. He had to stay in the hospital for a week. He himself said that he regretted that his intestines were blue. In fact, whether it is liquor, beer, fruit wine or even wine-added fermented glutinous rice or drunken shrimp, as long as it contains alcohol, it must be metabolized by the liver. The already diseased liver cells are already struggling to function, and they have to break down the alcohol. In the smallest case, it will induce inflammation and lead to an increase in transaminases. In the worst case, it will directly trigger acute liver failure. This is a dead line that all liver disease patients, whether they are carriers or cirrhosis patients, cannot touch. There is no room for "drinking less will be fine".

More hidden than wine is moldy food. Many people think that they can eat it by picking off the moldy parts, but this is totally wrong. There was an old hepatitis B patient who had been eating pickles for half his life. He couldn't bear to throw away the moldy peanuts, peeled the shells and fried them into porridge. Six months later, the alpha-fetoprotein was tripled to the normal upper limit. Fortunately, the puncture test showed only fluctuations in inflammation and did not develop into liver cancer. Aflatoxin is a clear first-level carcinogen. The risk of liver cancer in patients with liver disease is several times higher than that of healthy people. Touching this kind of thing is completely stepping on a high-voltage wire. Except for moldy nuts, grains, spotted sweet potatoes, green leafy leftovers that have been left for more than 24 hours, and cooking oil that has been damp and caked, it is best to throw them away directly. Don’t save money and end up spending it on medical expenses.

As for the myth that "you cannot eat soy products, seafood, or eggs if you have liver disease" that is so popular on the Internet, these are actually very controversial statements, and there is no absolute right or wrong. I met an aunt before. I heard from fellow patients that eating soy products would increase the burden on the liver. She hadn’t touched a bite of tofu in half a year. She even dared to eat eggs and milk once a week. During the reexamination, her albumin was extremely low and she had ascites. The doctor didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He asked her to add a cup of soy milk and an egg every day. It took her two months to raise her index slowly. There has long been a consensus in the academic community on this point: as long as there is no risk of hepatic encephalopathy, lightly processed soy products, deep-sea fish, and eggs are all very good sources of high-quality protein. They are easier to digest than red meat and can help repair liver cells. Just avoid vegetarian meat and pickled fish that add a lot of salt, oil, and preservatives.

Many elders say that "liver disease should not be treated by touching hair" is not completely unreasonable, but the judgment standards of Chinese and Western medicine are different. In Western medicine, there is no corresponding concept of "eating things", but if you are allergic and develop rashes or transaminase fluctuations after eating seafood, mutton, or rooster, you should naturally avoid them. ； If you don't feel any discomfort after eating it, there is no need to completely avoid it. After all, nutrition will only be good if it keeps up with your immunity. One-size-fits-all will only drag down the body.

Don’t use other people’s taboo lists to apply to yourself. The precautions for liver disease at different stages are very different. For example, hepatitis B carriers with completely normal liver function can basically eat the same food as normal people except for alcohol and moldy food. They do not need to eat white porridge and vegetables every day, which will destroy the body. ； But if you have reached the decompensated stage of liver cirrhosis, you must be extra careful not to eat hard, prickly, or too hot food. I saw an old man with cirrhosis of the liver in the emergency department. He took a bite of freshly baked crispy sesame seeds and cut through the varicose esophageal vein. He vomited half a basin of blood and almost failed to save his life. If you have had hepatic encephalopathy before, you should also control your intake of animal protein and give priority to plant proteins such as soy milk and tofu to avoid coma caused by elevated blood ammonia.

I was chatting with doctors in the Department of Infectious Diseases before, and they said they were most afraid of patients going to two extremes: either they dare not eat anything, and they end up losing weight until they are just bones, and malnutrition will slow down their recovery.； Either he doesn't care about anything, he drinks and eats barbecue every day, and eventually cirrhosis of the liver or even liver cancer comes to his doorstep. In fact, the diet for liver disease really doesn’t have so many complicated rules. The core is not to cause extra trouble to the already diseased liver. It is comfortable to eat and the indicators are stable every time it is rechecked. It is better than anything else. You really don’t have to be frightened by the various “fasting lists for liver disease” on the Internet and dare not even eat.